Brrrrrrrrrrrrr....the last day of February is going to be brutal!  Is anyone else just plain done with winter yet?  I love a cozy winter night at home, but I'm ready for spring!  Mother nature has been teasing us with some beautiful warm and sunny weather earlier in the week, but March is definitely coming in like a lion.  It's the perfect time to cook up a big pot of homemade Chicken & Cheese Tortellini Soup!  This hearty homemade chicken noodle soup with tender, cheese-filled tortellini has always been a family favorite!

​Rotisserie chicken and fresh three cheese tortellini offer a huge time-saver for this working mama, so I'll have this ready for dinner tonight in no time.  Don't you love a quick dinner after a long day, especially when it tastes so darn good?  And to be perfectly honest, I'll pick pillowy cheese tortellini over egg noodles every time!  The flavor that it brings to this soup is so cheesy, creamy and wonderful.  

Ahhhhh......sometimes there are no words necessary.  Dark Chocolate Brownies - thick and chewy, fudgy homemade brownies.  Perfect all on their own.  But top them with a thick layer of strawberry infused Strawberry Cheesecake Truffle filling?  Heavenly...  And then take it all the way home with dark chocolate ganache drizzled on top.  Add a Chocolate Double Dipped Strawberry for garnish, and you'll know that your chocolate and strawberry dreams come true!

​There are times when a picture really is worth a million words!  And there's no time for talking when all you want to do is devour this fabulous little treat!

There's just something magical about chocolate covered strawberries!  So silky and velvety on the outside - and bright, juicy and bursting with flavor on the inside.  Not only perfect to look at, but perfect with every bite - a party in your mouth!

​And so stinking easy to make!  All it takes is some perfect strawberries, GOOD quality chocolate - be it your favorite dark, semi-sweet, milk or white chocolate, and as quickly as you can melt the chocolate, you're in business!  This really isn't so much a recipe as it is a process, but once you know the secrets, you'll be impressing your friends and family with beautiful chocolate double-dipped strawberries too.  

Do you ever have one of those crazy moments when the phone rings and someone tells you that "I need a cake...like now...and it has to be fabulous?"  With six kiddos, it seems like there is always something that comes up at the last minute, and for those times when I'm short on time, I'm not adverse to shortcuts!  I am, however, going to kick and scream before paying $45.00 for a ready-made bundt cake.  Especially when I have a copycat recipe for a rich and moist Chocolate-Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake that is better than anything you can buy!

​If you have a hankering for a deep chocolate bundt cake that is studded with mini-chocolate chips and flooded with chocolate ganache, this is the cake for you!  And when you can have it in the oven in less than five minutes, cooling on the counter in an hour, and rich chocolate ganache ready to drizzle, with fun sprinkles on standby?  This one is a winner!

Finger-licking-good!  These words were inspired by these delicious Baked Honey Barbecue Boneless Wings!  Baked and tender white chicken, dipped in buttermilk and egg, coated with a perfectly seasoned crispy chicken breading and baked up hot, and then tossed in the most perfect honey barbeque sauce ever.  If you like your chicken tangy and your barbeque sauce smoky, sweet and sticky, these are calling your name.  So saucy!

I have yet to meet anyone that doesn't just DEVOUR these - they are the first thing to disappear at appetizer and game day parties.  A long-time family favorite for both dinner and snacking, but they are also fabulous sliced up for a barbeque chicken salad with some fresh salad greens, cheddar cheese and crumbled bacon, or rolled up in a sandwich wrap with tomatoes, cheese and shredded lettuce.  So delicious!

I have no words....but I don't need any words!  One bite of this Dark Chocolate Raspberry Tart is worth a million words, and sighs, and gasps of delight!  If you love silky and rich dark chocolate, and if you LOVE fresh raspberries, this little treat is going to take you to the moon!

​We celebrated our Valentine's Day this weekend, as it was just a little bit too crazy during the week.  Staying at home to celebrate, away from the crowds and all the gimmicks, is easily our favorite way to celebrate each other.  We usually have a homemade gourmet dinner that we make together, all while enjoying a glass of wine or our favorite Sparkling Raspberry Champagne Cocktails.  But this little treat I had whipped up the day before - it literally only took a half hour from start to finish.  But what a finish!  You should have seen Skipper's face when I pulled this little surprise out from its hiding spot in the fridge!  

It's no secret that fresh raspberries and dark chocolate are my heart's favorite!  This INCREDIBLY sparkling raspberry champagne cocktail is the perfect drink for special occasions.  Very much like a French Martini, but when you start with the fresh Raspberry Coulis that we made at the beginning of February, this little drink is so festive, so bubbling, so pink and pretty that you'll love it for Valentine's Day, bridal showers and anytime you need to create a special signature drink!​

It wouldn't be Valentine's Day at our house without this wonderful fresh Salmon with Champagne & Raspberry Crème Sauce!  This has been on our Valentine Dinner menu for more than a decade - a romantic dish from Gunflint Lodge, and one of our favorites!

​Start with a bottle of champagne, pour a flute or two to sip on while you prepare this with your honey!  Tender salmon is poached in butter and champagne, and topped with a fabulous Champagne & Raspberry Crème Sauce.  It's beyond wonderful - and a dinner that will capture your heart!

Be still my heart!  This weekend at Snowflakes & Coffeecakes Cooking School it was all about the sugar cookies...and more specifically, all about the world's BEST Cream Cheese Sugar Cookies, decorated with colorful Easy Royal Icing and LOTS of Valentine sprinkles!  

​For those of you that love sugar cookies, this is my favorite recipe and decorating techniques to share.  Skipper likes to say that decorating sugar cookies is just "grown-up arts and crafts", and he may be right!  We had so much fun baking these soft and perfect sugar cookies, and the hours flew by the next day when we got around to decorating them.

I don't know about you, but this just seems like it has been the LONGEST winter ever!  Over the past couple of months I've really been concentrating on making all of our family-favorite homemade soups, tweaking any recipes that needed to be tweaked, and re-taking photographs.  It's been a labor of love, and so much fun!  Never before have I made so many different kinds of soup batch after delicious batch, and it's causing all kinds of "new favorites" to be identified.  I should have started a favorite soup contest!    

​No doubt about it though, this is my absolute personal favorite!  I love white chicken lasagna, and I love vegetable lasagna - and this creamy, flavorful White Chicken Lasagna Soup is better than both of them - hands down.  And with everything made in a single soup pot, this is so much easier and faster to make than a baked traditional lasagna that it is sure to become one of your favorites too!  All the white cheese flavor, loaded up with fresh vegies and tender lasagna noodles - it is downright perfection!

​These decadent fresh raspberries, dipped in rich dark chocolate, taste even more wonderful than they look!  So simple to make, my family loves these even more than Chocolate Covered Strawberries!  And every time I make them, I'll find EVERYONE huddled around the kitchen island, eating these one after another, or trying to sneak into the refrigerator when they think I'm not looking.  The first time I made these for my Dark Chocolate Cheesecake Mousse Tart with Chocolate-Covered Strawberries & Raspberries, the chocolate-covered raspberries were such a hit that I now just make them to serve all by themselves.  Sometimes its just easier to go with the flow!

​These are perfect for Valentine's Day, a bridal shower or wedding reception, an anniversary or retirement celebration, or just for a special romantic treat with someone you love.  

Last weekend I once again had a chance to enjoy a piece of White Chocolate Raspberry Bundt Cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes - and I remembered just how much we LOVE this cake!  If you've ever had a cake from Nothing Bundt Cakes, you'll know just how amazing these are, and why these are so popular.  But at $45.00 for a 10-inch bundt cake, these are a pricey little treat.  Good thing this Mama has a copycat recipe up her sleeve that my family and friends love more than the original!  In a side-by-side taste test, my recipe is the favorite!  Scrumptious rich white chocolate cake layered with swirls of deep crimson raspberry puree - fluffy, moist and SO GOOD - it's bundt cake perfection!  
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​When I tell you that this cake is simple and easy to make, I'm not kidding.  Our five-year-old little guy helped me put this one together and we had so much fun!  Measuring and chopping, pouring and swirling - he just loved watching the cake bake through the oven window as well.  By the time it was cool enough for us to drizzle thick ribbons of perfect Cream Cheese Frosting over the sides and sprinkle some fresh raspberries on top, he was to the moon!

Once I started baking Madeleines, I just can't stop!  Once you've made them, you've mastered them!  And then you'll get all kinds of giddy because you starting imagining all of the delicious possibilities.  And what's not to love about Dark Chocolate & Raspberry Madeleines?  Delicate little butter cakes that most people refer to as cookies.  Known for their beautiful scalloped shell shape - so light, and so gorgeous!

​This variation of the little French cakes are baked with a fresh raspberry and then filled with rich dark chocolate ganache.  And for the perfect little touch, I add just a tiny bit of Raspberry Coulis to the dark chocolate ganache.  Creamy and silky perfection!  

Aren't fresh raspberries the BEST?   And to kick-off February, the month of love, I usually start with making one of our favorite fresh raspberry sauces with a fancy French name - Raspberry Coulis.  If you've never tried this before, don't waste another minute!

​The sweet and fresh raspberry flavor with an intense raspberry essence will enchant you!  And for ten minutes of your time, you'll be rewarded with a perfect and vibrant fresh raspberry puree that is so loaded with flavor and beautiful red color that is FABULOUS is so many things that it will make you dizzy with wonder!